Soul Eater: Face of my Enemy
by suomynonAyletamitlU
Summary: A strange character from Shibusen's past awakens; what effect will he have on the future?  Action/Humor with 3...  or 1?  OC.  Takes some liberties with characters' pasts, but tries to hold true to the tone of the series.
1. Chapter 1

In a jail cell below Shibusen, a man in chains starts, then stands up slowly. Although he cannot move very far, he squints at the light through the cell bars, and tries to stretch.

"I feel calm... finally." He lays a hand on his heart. "That wavelength... it's strong, but I think we're getting used to it. Aren't we... Erin?"

"The two of us... and _Kitsune_."

* * *

"Shinigami-sama." Sid stuck his head into the receiving room, then straightened and walked in. "It seems that 'that boy' has awakened."

"Hmmmmm?" Shinigami paused for a moment. "Which one was he?"

"He became unresponsive after his partner was killed... the incident with the two of them and the witch..." Sid lifted his notebook and glanced at it. "It was a long time ago."

"Aah... the staff Meister. Well, if he's awake, then that's a good thing!"

"But..." Sid lowered his notes. "What if the witch takes control?"

"You're worrying too much. He's been sleeping a long time, hasn't he? I think if he was in danger he wouldn't have come back at this point." Shinigami raised a hand to wave off the objection. Well, he should be fine as long as he keeps his Soul Protect on."

"Well... about that..."

* * *

The man stands on the roof of Shibusen, feeling the breeze, hearing the sounds of young people going about their business. He is a large man-well muscled, tall, burly in several ways. He's been here for a little while now, and there are a couple people staring at him now-notably, Meister Maka Albarn and her weapon Soul.

"I'm certain of it now," said Maka, peeking out of hiding at him. "It's a little strange, but that's definitely a Witch's soul wavelength."

"Do we tell someone?" Soul peeked a little, too, but he wasn't as interested in hiding it. Still, the man didn't seem to notice.

"No... I'm worried. Let's go!" With a swift movement, Soul was in hand, his body transformed into the scythe that was his second form. With an abrupt movement, Maka launched herself out of hiding, bringing Soul to bear, aiming for the neck, hoping to catch him and trap him so he could not escape.

The man turned, his arm transforming into an amber wooden shaft. His eyes were a little afraid, but his strike was the real thing-Maka's attack was interrupted, and she and Soul were pushed back, to land a few feet away.

"Wait a minute," said Soul. "Is he a weapon?

"I don't know." Maka paused, but held Soul up defensively. "I suppose he could be... after all, it was Witches who first made the Weapons, but..."

"You're mistaken." The man's voices sounded hurt, like he was sulking. "Meister, Weapon, Witch. I am one of these, and all three at once." He paused for a minute, trembling, then launched himself at Maka. "Who the hell do you think you are, attacking some innocent person at random?"

"What?" Neither Maka nor Soul reacted fast enough, in part because of his strange reversal, and the man's hand-once again a wooden shaft-nailed Maka in the gut. He spun, trying to deliver a sweeping strike with his other hand-come-staff, but Maka managed to block it. He struck again, and again, but after the first blow, Maka kept up. He tried a sweeping kick at her legs, but his sudden peg-leg didn't surprise her, either.

"Tch," he said, and reached his hand for his face. As he brought his hand up to his hair, a translucent white object began to appear, and he drew it down over his face-a white mask, but one with whiskers protruding from its front. As it settled over his face, Maka felt a sudden burst-a rise in the Witch wavelength she felt, and a splitting of wavelengths, like one had become two-or two had become one.

He tried again, and his strikes were different-faster, angrier, more spiteful somehow, and with a darker red tinge to the wood. He also extended the wood further, without turning more of his body into it.

"Tch, what the hell?" Maka deflected a last blow and took another swipe with Soul, aiming this time for a killing blow. However, the mans' body also turned into wood-this time, all the way, becoming a redwood quarterstaff, which was knocked away by the strike. However, before the staff landed, it morphed back into his previous form, still wearing the mask.

From behind Maka came two pairs of running footsteps-belonging to Franken Stein and Spirit. In spite of the scene, Stein and Spirit didn't seem worried, and spoke like they were friends.

"Rick-kun," said Spirit. "It's been a very long time. Are you-?"

However, the man didn't listen, for the moment. He pushed off with his feet, at the same time transforming into the staff-and hurtling straight towards Stein. Stein, his face serious, dodged out of the way... however, as the staff passed, it partially transformed back, and a hand lanced out into his gut.

"Stein!" Spirit leaped over to lend a hand, and Stein took it, letting Spirit transform into his Deathscythe form.

"Looks like his strength hasn't diminished after all this time." Stein, with his free hand, wrenched the bolt in his skull. "How interesting. I'd love to dissect him... again." His grin was full of wickedness, and of pain.

"Stein..." Spirit's voice echoed from the scythe. "In any event, we need to pacify him. Getting the mask off should be enough, shouldn't it?"

"Probably." Stein's feet shuffled a little, and he launched off quickly. Three blows was more than enough to prove that the two of them together were better; two swipes from Spirit were barely blocked, and Stein's crushing palm strike struck home. Unfortunately for them, Rick transformed back into a staff even as he was being hit, and he flew a short ways away.

"Rick," warned Spirit. "Calm down. You just got out, right? We want to talk with you."

The staff bounced once, spun in the air, and Rick transformed as he landed on his feet. When he spoke, though, his words held an echo of a second voice, one definitely feminine: "Yes, yes, but only after I'm done _playing_ for a bit." Rick's head lowered, and the voices were threatening. "You know damned well how much I want to beat your ass down, Franken.

Along with the words, Rick set a stance, again forming more and more of a staff from his hands as if out of nothing-without reducing his bodyas though he were a Deathscythe-until he was holding a copy of himself in his hands. At first, it seemed like a trick, until the words escaped his lips: "Soul resonance!"

Maka and Stein felt it most clearly. The two soul wavelengths that were combining were coming from the same person, it's true, but one was from underneath the mask... and the other from the mask itself, and that wavelength was _definitely_ a witch's. The staff in his hands fully separated from him, but the wavelength was too close to identical to really say that they were disconnected... their wavelengths were so close to begin with, Maka wondered what sort of power could be drawn from that relationship.

There were two changes-the staff began to reshape itself, becoming more of a body-length wand of twisted red wood, a mage's staff that blossomed at the end to encapsulate a blood red fluid, which formed into the shape of a crystal and held that shape, although the surface rippled. The other change was his body; a whiteness spread from the mask, wrapping around Rick's body... and then shrinking, well past where his body had been, replacing what he was entirely with the form of a woman's-a tall woman, slender, busty, and_ furry_, with ears and the tail of a fox, all covered with red hair. The face, too, was no longer a mask, but revealed her true features-features that bore no twistedness, only sadness. She still wore Rick's clothing, though, and it was a little too large for her, such that it started to come loose in a couple places.

"Wooooaaaah!" Spirit couldn't resist the urge to drop out of weapon mode and fawn over the beauty that appeared before him. She shifted position for a moment, causing her pants to fall down-although her torso remained covered by the oversize shirt. Spirit, approvingly, fawned and babbled incoherently. Maka gave him a solid strike to the head with Soul's shaft.

The action drew the woman's eye. When she alighted on Stein, her eyes flashed with anger, and she rode the staff into the sky, then back down towards him. Her voice was clearly a woman's, without the half-tone of before. "How... dare... you...!"

The staff smashed into the rooftop, blowing up debris, but Stein avoided the blow carefully. His eyes were set, and he leaped after her, his hand charged with his soul wavelength, ready to strike. However, she leaped out of the dust and hung for a moment in the air, her shirt flapping in the breeze, her eyes ablaze and set upon Stein. Then, she smirked. "Fox, fix, flex, foax..." the incantation was short. "Tail Blade!"

The staff's crystal suddenly spouted a fox tail from one edge; in an instant, though, the tail reshaped itself into a scythe blade, flattening and stiffening as though it had always been a part of the design. Still using it like a broom, though, she launched herself towards Stein, swinging only at the last moment. Spirit got quickly behind her-flanking her along with Stein. However, the swing of her staff-cum-scythe kicked up a fierce wind, which raised the back of her shirt up more than enough to keep Spirit unfortunately down for the count.

Maka and Soul, however, didn't have quite the vulnerable angle that Spirit had, and they charged in from one side. Stein was quick to wave them off, however: "Don't! I don't know exactly what's going on, but this woman..." He kept his eyes on her, but his glare got a little fiercer. "She clearly has all the abilities of a witch. Let me handle this."

"But Professor...!"

"More importantly..." Stein's hands clenched, like he was gripping nothing, but tightly, and his eyes were wild again. "I need to confirm the results of my autopsy from back then."

"Oh?" The fox woman's firy eyes glared at him. "You know you set the three of us back quite a bit with your impromptu surgery, Stein. It might have taken far fewer years if we had only not been torn apart."

"I don't regret it." Stein grinned madly. "You're the most interesting person I've ever dissected... the extinct witch, Kitsune."

Kitsune hissed in return, and pointed her staff at him. "Fox, forx, flax, flix... Tail Troop!"

Three fox tails sprung from the staff, falling to the ground. Each of them suddenly grew fangs and ears, and they scattered, then began to converge on Stein.

"Wait a minute," came Spirit's voice from behind Kitsune. "The three of you... does that mean that Erin is still with you?"

Kitsune twitched hard, and the three fox tails disappeared into smoke.

"She is, isn't she!" Spirit ran up to Kitsune and threw his arms around her in a giant hug, pinning her arms and forcing her to drop the staff. "God... she's alive, after all these years!"

"Ah... ah..." Kitsune's form wavered, the mask showing. Her voice had the dual tone again, like two people were speaking at once. "Spirit... kun..."

"Rick... you have to tell me. You have to let me talk to her! Please, Rick!" Spirit was crying, and clutching Kitsune/Rick tightly.

"Spirit... kun... need to..."

"Please, you have to-"

Stein rushed forward, and for a moment, everyone thought he was going to smash Rick in the chest. However, instead, he hit Spirit in the face, making him go flying backwards.

"Aaah!" Spirit jumped to his feet. "What the hell was that for, Stein?"

"Rick was trying to tell you to stop." Stein put a fresh cigarette on his lips and turned away. "He has to be able to use his hands to remove the mask, you know."

"Oh... yes, I suppose so." He turned to look at Rick-and then noticed the burly man's physique was back, but his pants were not. Maka and Soul were already looking away, with Maka well in into the middle of a stream of epithets about her father. Stein, ever the pragmatist, simply thew the pants to him.

A moment later, Rick lifted the mask, which faded away as it rode up to towards the top of his head. "Ah... that does feel a lot better." He stretched a little bit, rocking back and forth. "It's been ages since I moved a muscle! Honestly, this near-immortality thing is _great_."

Spirit ran up to him again. "Rick," he pleaded. "You have to let me talk to her. Please, let me see my sister!"

"Dad has a sister?" Maka turned back suddenly to look. Rick's hand went to his face again, but the left side of his head instead, and drew a mask across his face. Maka was too far away to hear the words, but the voice she heard was musical... soft, and kind. Somehow, it put her at ease. Stein, however, took both Maka and Soul by the arm and led them away.

"Wait a minute," protested Soul. "Are you sure we can trust that guy?"

"Spirit-sempai can take care of himself," Stein assured them. "And somehow I think Rick was always controlling himself. However..." his eyes were sad. "Spirit hasn't seen his sister since she died. The least I can do is give them a few moments alone."

"Stein..." Maka regarded him. "Somehow, this isn't like you."

"That woman, when she was alive, had a miraculous effect on everyone around her." Stein clamped down on his cigarette nervously, biting it in half. "Even... someone like me can respect her."


	2. Chapter 2

A short while later, in Shinigami's room, Rick was taking tea with Death himself. Spirit, Stein, and Cid looked on from one side, Maka, Soul, and Death the Kid from the other.

"It has been such a long time," said Shinigami, "since that most unfortunate accident. However, you seem to be healthy and in good spirits."

Rick took his tea with a stolid face. "We are all very sad about what happened... but more than that, Shinigami-sama..." Rick's face filled with tears, and he slammed his face into the table and wept, loudly and obnoxiously. "How could you chain up and forget about an innocent person like me?"

"Ah.. well..." Shinigami looked at him flatly. "It's not like we could be certain you weren't a witch. Even Stein said you had one as a part of you."

After a few moments of bawling, Rick calmed, then sat back up and drank more tea. "It's true. I thought for a long time that the witch had infected us, but the truth was... it was something older, something unexpected."

"The extinct witch, Kitsune." Stein's voice was cold. "It's very interesting that any part of her soul still survived, much less such a strong piece."

"Please wait a moment, father." Death the Kid cleared his throat. "I only know vaguely... who is this man?"

Shinigami looked towards the older three. Spirit and Stein both looked away. Cid looked back at Shinigami and shook his head. "When I was alive, I was trusted by many secrets, but this was before my time. I never knew what really happened."

"I guess I'll have to tell you, then." Shinigami sipped his tea. "Well, to sum it up, Meister Rick and his weapon Erin attempted to make a Death Scythe by fighting a witch, and died!" His voice was bright, and convinced as he was that he had concluded the story, he went back to his tea.

"Shinigami... sama..." Spirit hung his head for a moment at the shamefully oversimplified story, then began to boil with anger. "What the hell was that? How could you leave out all the lovely tales of my sister, and only say 'she died'?"

"Well, that is what he was asking," replied Shinigami affably.

Cid piped up. "But... he's obviously still alive. He doesn't seem to be a zombie like me."

"That's because he isn't a zombie." Shinigami took his tea again. "He's a witch, after all."

"You didn't mention that in your story at all!"

"Enough." Stein's voice cut through them all. He still didn't meet anyone's eyes. "Spirit and I went to Shibusen with Rick and Erin, who is Spirit's sister. Rick was... also a genius Meister." He didn't pause, but his words were solemn. "Rick and Erin collected the 99 souls almost as fast as Kami, but when it came time to fight a witch, they snuck out after a strong one... someone that they were both angry at. The witch trapped them in a spell at the same moment that they attempted a Soul Resonance. That spell trapped the two of them in a moment of time, which for them lasted an eternity." He looked up, finally, to Rick, who was looking back at him. "Somehow, although it only lasted a moment, they broke free of the spell, and killed her. However, before Erin could consume the witch's soul, they both collapsed, and died."

"When we found them, Erin's weapon morph had gone rogue, and both their bodies had combined into one. Although I attempted to dissect them and separate them, it seemed like they had fused into one being. They were of one mind, one body, but three souls. What's more... even though the body was dead, it consumed spirit energy greedily. When it absorbed enough, the body began to live again. At first we were happy... but the three of them were so mixed up that none of them understood. Truly, not one or two of them, but all three had died, and were being born anew."

"I tried my hand at the problem, hoping that I could separate them. However, the only time I tried, I awoke the witch's soul, and it tried to devour me. If it weren't for Spirit-sempai and the three of them working together, the witch would have gone mad. Instead, they decided they would meditate. Years went by. I tried to make my spirit wavelength strong and precise. I came back to them and tried to separate them again. However, this time was different. The three souls were working in concert to separate each other, but when I tried to remove one, the other two started to die. It was then I truly understood that they were the same being."

"The damage was done, and they went into a rage and tried to kill me. This is when we learned the identity of the witch; it was not the one they had attacked, but rather, the extinct witch, Kitsune, one of the sacrificial witches that were used to make the first Weapons."

"What?" Death the Kid started. "How can that be? I thought those witches were entirely destroyed by the process."

Rick's eyes turned to him. "They are. It takes powerful magic to overcome it. However, in that eternal moment that Erin and I were trapped by that witch's spell, we were forced to turn inside, with our intertwined souls the only thing that existed. If it weren't for that... if we hadn't had years inside of that spell... and if we had not gone insane from it, we would not have found the last piece of that witch, sealed behind a barrier deep within Erin. It is because she was there-and because she was immune to the witch's power-that we did not suffer until the end of time itself. We released her, and she became us."

"So that's what happened." Spirit's eyes were sad. "What happened to the witch after that?"

"Her magic remained. Her malice was not strong, but we could all feel the Sway of Magic." Rick looked down. "Or perhaps, after that torture, we had all given in to insanity as well. However, whatever the reason, we all felt it... the desire to destroy. Even Erin and her Mending Soul seemed dampened. But unlike the two of us, she never gave in." Rick turned to Spirit. "In that eternity... she talked about you a great deal. She never gave up on the idea that she would see you again. Even though she's seen you again, it still feels that way. Perhaps something else is missing."

Spirit looked away, as though he felt the same way, but he didn't have anything else to say.

"Wait a minute." Maka stepped forward. "When we were fighting, you put on that mask and your soul wavelength changed. And then again, later, you transformed into that witch. Are you trying to say that that is all the Witch's magic?"

"Mm. I don't want to say more." Rick patted the top of his head gently, and for a moment, the others could see the faint outline of a mask over the crown of his head. Maka and Stein thought for a moment that they heard a low-voiced animal murmur, one that sounded content, if a little anxious. "A woman has to have her secrets."

"Wait a minute," said Cid. "I don't think-"

"It's alright, Cid." Shinigami sipped his tea. "Well, it is a little inconvenient for you to keep it from me, but I suppose..."

"If the worst happens, I suppose Stein could deal with him," pointed out Kid.

Rick's arm extended into a staff and very nearly clocked Stein in the jaw, momentarily spooking even him. "I'll kill him if he tries," said a triple voice.

"Erin-chan..." Spirit was crying. "Your voice sounds so cruel now..."

Rick's eyes turned to him. His voice was only a double, now. "Spirit-kun... I didn't mean it... but Stein's methods are too cruel!" His eyes misted up, then exploded with tears, and his voice became single-timbre again. "Steeeein! How could you take an innocent freak like us and be so cruel?"

Somehow, with the crying and shouting theater going on, only Maka noticed that Stein looked away, his eyes locked somewhere in the past.


	3. Chapter 3

"Starting today, you have a new teacher." Cid looked towards the classroom entrance. "Although actually... even though I say that..."

Rick was sitting in the front row, looking back at Cid from a student's chair. In front of him was a notepad, and he was paying rapt attention.

"Rick-san... if you would..."

"Sure." Rick reached up to his head and brought down the fox mask. For a moment, his soul wavelength flashed, although most of the students couldn't tell. Even without a resonance, the mask seemed to react strongly, and after a moment, Rick was replaced by Kitsune-except that her face remained covered by the mask. His clothes, again, did not transform, but she pulled at his belt, tightening it before leaping over the desk and standing in front of the class.

"Hi~" she said, landing in front of the podium and leaning against it. "My name is Kitsune, and I am an ex-Witch. Pleased to meet you all!" The visage on the mask maintained the same expression, a pleasant-seeming grimace, but her voice was friendly. "I have a lot to teach you about magic, and also Madness!"

There was a lot of chatter in the classroom, but Kitsune waved it off. "So, let's start by letting you ask questions!"

Ox was the first one to throw down the obvious objection. "What the hell are you talking about? Why should we trust a witc-"

Before anyone had noticed, Rick was back in the front row, raising his hand. "Kitsune-_sensei_," he asked. "What makes a witch different from a magic user?"

He threw down his mask, transformed as he jumped over the desk, and leaned casually against the podium again, this time as Kitsune. "Why, excellent question, Rick! Witches have a long history, one that deals with bloodlines, master/student relationships, and many other things. However, the most important difference is in the _soul_."

Kitsune released her soul protect, and close as they were, most of the students could feel something odd, at least a little. Only Maka could sense it clearly, and she had felt it before.

"Well, unfortunately, I'm not quite a 'witch' in soul anymore," she admitted. "However, that 'soul wavelength' is still within me."

Maka closed her eyes and tried to feel it out, but she couldn't quite understand it. She could identify the soul wavelength as a witch's, but she couldn't pick it apart.

Then, suddenly, Rick was in the front row again. "Question, Kitsune-sensei! Why do they call it a 'soul wavelength'?" Maka noticed, with alarm, that he had also been writing in his notebook.

"Why the heck has he been taking notes if they're the same person...?"

Kitsune leaned clasped her hands theatrically and squeed a little. "Ah, Rick-kun, you're such a good student! "

Maka's face fell. "Wait, is he doing that just to flirt with her?"

Soul stared along with her. "That's.. somehow creepy."

"Human wavelength, Kishin egg, anti-demon wavelength, Witch, the the wavelength of madness... they have their own feelings, like frequencies of sound. Some frequencies are gentle and soft, some are stready or rythmic. However... like sounds, some are painful." Kitsune clutched at her chest sadly. "Feeling inadequate... when it is simply something that happens to you, then it doesn't matter, because it will pass. But when it is who you are, when you have no choice but to try to grow strong, then there is nothing left to live for but hatred." Her hand tightened.

"Hatred for the reason you're weak. Hatred for those who judge you as weak. Hatred for the people who don't have to live with being weak." Her wavelength flared for a minute, and the room seemed to tremble for a minute. "And... hatred for the people who pretend you are the one with the problem."

"Oi, oi, is she for real?" Soul leaned over towards Maka. "What do we do?"

Maka was feeling the tremble in the wavelength. "It's strange... even though I know what she's saying is wrong... it feels like... it feels like..."

Suddenly, the wavelength changed-or, it was overpowered. Rick lifted one mask, and brought the other across. His form changed again, to that of a tall woman with golden hair, her face covered with a mask that smiled gently.

"The soul wavelength is a powerful thing, as you can see." Her voice was musical. "It defines us, but it is also indicative of something-of our health, and our happiness." She, too, put her hand against her heart, and squeezed gently, as though with regret. "You've been told it before: a healthy 'soul' resides in a healthy mind and a healthy body."

The classroom was stunned for a moment. Ox raised a hand. "Um... who are you?"

Suddenly, there was a pounding, as though from a long ways away. As it grew closer, it sounded more and more like footsteps. Then, suddenly, the door burst open, and Spirit flew through it, aimed straight at her. "Eeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiin!"

Instead of either getting hit or counterattacking, Erin stepped to one side at the last moment, reached out with one hand, and captured Spirit in a hug that sent them both spinning around. Before he could even start babbling in his usual way, she pulled him against her, and stratched at his head like a puppy. Spirit let out a contented sigh, and after a moment of wiggling happily, he relaxed.

"When people are in pain... when people lose a part of themselves that they needed... a wavelength is born that might never die. Or perhaps it would be better to say that your existing wavelength has a hole eaten in it."

Ox raised his hand again. "Um... you didn't answer the question. Who are you?"

"I am one of three souls that have become part of the same person." She patted Spirit's hair. "Once, I was a weapon. Spirit... who is called Deathscythe now, he was my younger brother. Rick was my meister. When we tried to fight a witch, we were trapped by a spell. It was because of that that we found the soul of the extinct witch, Kitsune, sealed inside me, as part of my blood as a weapon. Her power, and my ability as a weapon, both went crazy, and we three came to live in the same body."

"However, my wavelength is special. With time, I can mend that hole in a person's soul." She held Spirit against her tightly for a moment. "It isn't permanent, but it gives the soul a chance to heal-like binding a wound." She patted Spirit's head one last time, then picked him up and leaned him against the podium. "Because of that special property, and because there were three of us, we were able to bring Kitsune back from madness, and with her magic, we separated the three minds, giving one a body, and making two into masks."

"Although... just as we accomplished that for the first time..." she turned to look at the doorway, where Stein was standing just outside. Immediately, a terribly black look came over her face. "SOMEONE INTERRUPTED."

Somehow, with that look, even Stein seemed genuinely frightened. However, after a moment, she took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. "Well, and then it took a while longer to pick the pieces up again, that's all."

Spirit looked sadly at her. "Erin..."

Suddenly, Rick was behind the desk again. "Excuse me, Erin-sensei, this is interesting and all, but shouldn't we get back to the lesson?" His right hand was writing notes in the notebook again, although he didn't look at them at all.

After a moment's switching, Kitsune was back at the front of the room. Her menacing wavelength had disappeared, and she was composed. "Actually I need a little break. We'll end here for today."

As she turned to leave, Spirit stood a little straighter from the platform and watched her go. He followed her with his eyes as she strode out of the room; as she approached the door, her belt slipped, and her pants fell, to much ado from the class. She picked them up, tightened the belt down, and stalked off without comment.

It was a moment before Spirit realized he hadn't reacted to the slip at all.


	4. Chapter 4

Rick-Kitsune, now back under Soul Protect, stood balancing at the very pinpoint end of the middle spike that rose from the face of Shibusen. Her hair floated in the breeze, but otherwise she was still, balanced perfectly.

Maka and Soul watched her from below. "It's odd," said Maka. "Even knowing that she's a witch... I guess I should say, that she used to be a witch, she seems like a normal person." She looked down. "Then again, I guess Medusa did as well, but she was tricking all of us."

"Yeah." Soul looked up at her too, but he didn't seem all that interested. "Do you think she's trying to trick us too?"

"I don't know. I guess we can't tell unless something happens, can we?"

"Yeah." Soul didn't seem to have any further comment.

The breeze shifted direction momentarily. Kitsune's hair caught the sunlight, and shimmered slightly. Maka had to admit, she did look pretty.

Then, Black Star kicked Kitsune in the head with a loud, "WOOHOO!"

Kitsune flew sideways for a moment, until the momentum from the hit brought her close to the next spike; then she twisted, and caught the rounded bottom, somehow grasping it and swinging around the other side. She managed to land on the spike looking like she'd planned it, but Black Star was well into his introduction and couldn't be bothered to notice.

"...you'll never meet anyone as BIG as I am, so you'd better be grateful! Haha, hahahaha haha!"

"Shorty." Kitsune's single word was simply a statement of fact, although it sounded accusing. There was a pregnant pause.

"What... did you just say?" Black Star squinted menacingly at her.

"Small, short, tiny, no bigger tha-" she dodged his sudden flying kick and spun around, kicking off from that spike to land on the center one again. "Even your moves are small. Nothing about you is significant."

Soul and Maka cringed. "Oh, crap."

Soul's eyes held a barely-restrained fury. "Tsubaki! Chain-scythe mode!"

Tsubaki jumped in from somewhere nearby, likely wherever she and Black Star had been hiding before he showed himself. She only protested for a moment before transforming. By the time she finished, though, Kitsune had taken her full form-the mask now gone- and had her fox scythe staff rested over her right shoulder. Her eyes held a challenge, one that told Black Star that he was trying to take HER on, not the other way around, and she was grinning a predatory grin.

Black Star led with a ranged sweep, one that looked ready to tie Kitsune up in chains; however, her staff scythe extended its shaft, and she rode it up into the sky; just before the chain passed through it, it shortened long enough to miss, then lengthened again.

Black Star was already moving, though; he had leaped to the spike underneath her, and was leaping up to chase her; almost instantly, the staff cum scythe's shaft retreated again, then extended to nail him in the forehead. Before it pinned him, though, it knocked him spinning, and he caught the shaft with his hands, then his feet.

"Haha!" he shouted. "Take that, you-"

A fist lanced out of the staff not far from here he was holding it, and took him in the gut. Almost before he noticed, it retreated, and another uppercut him in the jaw. Somehow, the two hits seemed to phase him pretty badly, and he dropped back to the spike.

Kitsune let the scythe's shaft retract, and she fell not far away. Black Star grabbed himself for only a minute before standing and pointing accusingly. "Hey! Don't interrupt me when I'm telling you how awesome I am!"

"Hm...❤" Kitsune put a hand to her chin and regarded him. "Well, if you're that great, you can multitask, can't you?"

A muffled voice came from Kitsune, as though from behind a mask. "Enough, Kitsune. I'm more than enough for this one."

"Ah... but you know how much I like it..." Kitsune teased her shirt bottom with her fingers and rocked back and forth from one foot to the other.

"You know you're going to get to do most of the sparring anyway." Kitsune's form shifted, and Rick lifted the mask. "Let me have some time with Erin, would you?"

The response, if there was any, was very quiet, or perhaps only he could hear it. He smiled, and touched the left mask, but didn't put it on. "Soul resonance!"

Below, Maka was surprised. "He can do that without putting the mask on?"

The staff that extended from his hands was white, not red, made from three thin rods that were twisted together. He caught it and twirled in more several long moments, eyes closed, feeling the staff, and the wind it kicked up, for a long moment before setting a stance and opening his eyes and grinning. "Come on, shorty."

Black Star's eye twitched. He threw Tsubaki again, this time straight. "Who are you calling small?"

Rick deflected the attack, but not just once; in a single spin of his body, he knocked the scythe upwards, then hit it a second time to send it back at Black Star. Black Star caught it, but in the instant his hand was in the way, Rick disappeared; he looked left and right, then looked up in time to see a menacing figure drop from above.

"Soul Force Lance!" Even before Rick hit him, a wave of energy leaped from the end of the staff and crashed into his body from above. The wave seemed to momentarily paralyze Black Star, and in that moment, Rick thrusted the staff, adding the momentum of his fall to the brutal assault and on top of his soul wavelength.

The impact snapped the decorative spike off, even as close as they were to the base; in the moment that they were in freefall after the impact, Rick spun in midair, dropping a heel kick onto the opposite end of the staff. "One more time!"

The final impact sent Black Star into the pavement below. Even before the dust settled, the staff bounced back up into the air, and he caught it perfectly before dropping into the dust cloud.

Soul and Maka rushed up as it cleared; Tsubaki was covering Black Star, who was bleeding and apparently unconscious on the floor. Rick was appraising him with angry eyes. "How dare you assault an innocent freak like us. You won't prove your greatness by becoming a monster, shorty."

Soul rushed over to Black Star's side, and Maka approached Rick. "What are you doing? He's just a student here! You know that, right?"

Rick looked honestly surprised. "What? I'm only a student, too. I never graduated or anything."

"That's..." Maka paused. "Even if you say that, that's going too far!"

"Sorry." Rick looked away. "You have to understand, the one thing I am never going to accept is random violence. Before, when you attacked, I felt that it was because you didn't know. However, with this guy..." Rick looked at him. "He was only doing it for his own sake."

Maka looked away. "I'm not going to defend him, but I'm sure he has his reasons for being the way he is." She looked back at Rick, earnestly. "But being attacked by a witch, locked away for all those years... that doesn't excuse this!"

Rick cocked his head. "No, that was never the problem. You see, when I was young, my village, my family, and everyone I knew was killed by a group of assassins."

"Assassins?" Tsubaki's guarded expression slipped.

"Mm. They took a job from a witch, apparently. She had heard that a retired Meister lived in our village, one that was old and wise. Although she didn't know it, none of us even knew; he was just a kind old man. She hired them, and they killed everyone who lived there. I was only a kid, and my family hid me, but I still remember it." His eyes were widening, and he was shaking. "The blood... the dead eyes of my mother... the fire... the screams of the old man, the screams that lasted for hours. I can still see it... I can still hear it..."

The others were too shocked to say anything. Rick trembled for several moments, then calmed a little. "That's why, when I made it out of there, I came here to find Shinigami-sama. I told him, no matter what, that I had to be stronger, that those people had to be killed."

Tsubaki looked at him guiltily. "Do you know what clan of assassins it was?"

"I think... the Clan of the Star?" Rick looked up into the sky. "I never met them after that day, and I never saw them clearly. Shinigami-sama said that he took care of them some time after that... but..."

Rick finally registered that everyone was looking at him rather oddly. After a moment, Tsubaki started to say something, but she was interrupted.

"So... that's what happened." Black Star, somehow conscious, sat up. "So that's what caused them to be targetted by Shibusen."

"Targetted?" Rick, as though for the first time, noticed the star on Black Star's shoulder, and on his shoes. There was a pause as it registered with him. Then, suddenly, a boom of thunder was heard throughout the area, and his soul wavelength swelled to encompass much of the area, even as his staff disappeared. "YOU...!"

Maka stumbled backwards, falling over from the force of it. She could clearly see Rick's triple soul, and the huge scar that ran across it, the scar that was bleeding now. "No way...!"

Tsubaki, and Soul as well, stood in Rick's way. Tsubaki's eyes held a fierce determination, and her voice did not waver. "Don't! He's not a member of that clan. He was just a child, and Shinigami-sama raised him to be a Meister, just like you!"

"I don't care." Rick dived at the two of them, and with a ramming tackle that seemed to crackle with energy, knocked both of them clear. He stopped just short of Black Star, who was appraising him grimly. "Boy... do you have any last words?"

"Feh." Black Star staggered a little, but got to his feet. "I'm too BIG a man to take a threat like this sitting down. BUT!" He stood and shouted in Rick's face, facing him eye to eye. "I don't plan on dying here, and I don-"

Rick, in two or three hits, had knocked Black Star into the air, spun him around, and then slammed him bodily down again. His eyes were wild, and full of tears. "You don't actually think that I'm going to wait for you to stop talking, do you, monster?"

Two shots rang out, shots that took Rick in the shoulder, causing him to stumble to one side. Death the Kid stood a little ways away, and looked at Rick coldly. "I wondered what was going on, but I find you attacking our students. You do understand that he is a member of this school, right?"

"Kid!" Maka stood up. "Rick was... Black Star is..."

"I heard most of it." Kid leveled his guns at Rick. "However, don't think you can get away with killing him."

"Bring it on!" Without even hesitating, Rick charged him, his eyes still full of tears. "Even if you were Shinigami-sama himself, there are no words for this treachery!"

However, the martial arts that Rick had dominated with so far failed him against Kid. Once, twice, three times, he made strong, fast punches, but each time, Kid evaded or blocked. Kid noted the soul force charging his hands with no small amount of concern, but kept his face cold. _This man is a danger. I hope Father will forgive me if I have to..._

"Soul Force wall!" Rick held his arms in front of him, both fist-to-elbow, and shouted, producing a pair of shockwaves that travelled only a short distance, but knocked into one of Kid's weapons, and his hand. The weapon was blown out of his hand, and he grasped the hand, flinching with pain.

"Aaargh!" Liz transformed back as she hit the ground, grabbing her shoulder. "What kind of attack was that?"

Kid just looked at him, glaring, and grabbing his hand painfully. Finally, he glanced down at his one weapon, then back at Liz.

"Don't take your eyes off-" Rick started to charge, but was interrupted by a scythe, one that might have cut into his shoulder if he hadn't paused. Maka, tears in her eyes, picked Soul back up and stood in front of him.

"Kid, go get Liz." She didn't take her eyes off of Rick.

"You want to get in my way too..." His eyes didn't focus anymore. "You all... just..."

"Soul resonance!"

For a long moment, nobody knew who the two voices had been. Maka, desperately, tried to match it against any meister/weapon pair that were both women, but none of them fit the voices. She risked looking around, but she didn't see anyone, either.

When she looked back, the fox-witch Kitsune stood behind Rick, holding her blood-red staff, but without the scythe blade. Her clothes, somehow, were not Rick's; they looked like witch's clothes.

"What the-!"

Rick turned to look back at them. His eyes still shook, but they seemed to focus on them, at least. "Erin... you..."

Kitsune spun the staff and drove it home into his gut, then beat him several times around the head for good measure. Whether they took him by surprise or he didn't try, all of the blows struck exactly where they aimed, and after a moment, he fell to his knees.

"You freaking idiot." Kitsune hit him again in the face. "Didn't we face all this darkness before? Didn't you say that you were there when people needed you?" She slammed it down on his shoulder, which made a pained noise. "I was an idiot to think I could trust you with my soul. Didn't you say you'd protect me from that hatred? From the Sway of Magic? From the Wavelength of Madness?"

Rick didn't say anything, just sat there.

She bashed him across the face again. "We survived that darkness because the three of us all found ourselves. If you lose yourself, we ALL lose ourselves. You are the Body. You are the Medium. You are the Meister." She picked him up by his shirt and shouted directly in his face. "Don't you DARE play games with our souls!"

"Please wait a moment." Kid stood up, now holding both pistols again, one pointed at each of them. "I thought the three of you were the same person. How can the Witch act without resonating with you?"

"Tch." Kitsune dropped Rick and started moving towards Kid. For a moment, Kid looked afraid, but he raised his guns in preparation of an attack. Instead, she held up the staff. "We all carry the Weapon blood now. You should be able to tell, right? There are times when the weapon separates from the host body. But with this..." She tried to let go of the staff she held, revealing that it was fused with her skin. "At all times, two of us have to work together. Normally, there is one person with the Weapon blood and two people in the host. However, if she and I agree, we can work together within the Weapon body."

With that, Kitsune's body transformed, as though she were a weapon; for a moment, a glowing quarterstaff spun in midair, then it transformed back again, and Erin held a gleaming white staff, wearing clothes of light, neutral tones. Her eyes were serious. "One of us acts like the weapon, one as the meister, but we cannot separate. Kitsune cannot act freely, and without Rick as the Medium, she cannot use her magic. I am not capable of trusting my soul to a magic user like her, but she will resonate with me."

Rick turned to look at Erin. "W... was I really wrong, Erin?"

Erin walked towards him, kneeled down, and cradled his face in one hand. He looked up into her eyes, his own eyes full of sadness and fear.

She smashed him across the face with the staff, and he dropped. "Yes." Her voice was flat.

Kid and Maka made faces. "She seems... like something of a scary person," said Maka.

"I may have to re-evaluate what I thought of her," agreed Kid.

Rick sat up and looked up at her. Although his face was bruised, and his eyes bore a trace of sadness, he wore a relieved grin. "Alright. I got you, Partner."

Erin smiled gently. "Good then." She stood up and walked over to where Black Star was lying on the ground. He looked at her, only a little lamely, clutching his wounded chest.

"Ah... his ribs seem to be broken, so please don't-" Tsubaki started to interrupt, but Erin cut her off.

"Kitsune, if you would." She quieted, then opened her eyes. "Soul resonance!"

Suddenly, Erin's staff grew purer, whiter, like it was drawing the shadows out of everything around them. From one end, tendrils like roots extended, and the other branched out, complete with leaves, leaving the whole staff as a rather thin, elongated tree. When she touched the roots to Black Star's midsection, it seemed for a moment that a shadow left him, a jagged and broken shadow. She turned the staff around, and touched him with the branches, and white tendrils mended his bones. "Tree of life!"

After a moment, she let the ability lapse, and the staff returned to what it was. "Ah... that's a lot of work." She turned and glared darkly at Rick, making him jump slightly. "That bastard did FAR too much damage. He ought to know better."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Black Star jumped up. "Hey, I'm alright! I guess I was a bigger man than even I thought I was! Ha, hahahaha!"

The others regarded him with nonplussed looks.

Erin returned to Rick, and held a hand to help him up. Her face seemed friendly, and she was grinning. "If you ever go off the deep end like that again, I'll kick your ass good, you got me?"

Rick took the hand, and used the momentum to swing forward and give her a hug, which she returned. "You bet, Partner."

Erin transformed in-place into Kitsune, who was somewhat more clingy. "Rick-kun..." She squeezed him tightly, almost cuddling up to him. "You better not let me down again, alright?" She curled up against his chest. "I need you... you know that, right? If you don't want me to become a monster, I need you to be my sanity."

"Yeah." He put a hand on her head, and held her tightly. "I know, Kitty."

"Nyah... you know I hate that name." She looked up at him, and kissed him on the nose, but her look was flat. "I'm not your girlfriend or anything, you know."

Rick laughed and stepped away, holding her hand so that she spun like a dancer. "I know, Kitty. You're my Partner, just like Erin is." He grinned. "And you're her Partner, too. We're all in it together."

"Yup." She grinned back, then disappeared in a blaze of light, and returned to Rick's body. He stood, smiling slightly, for a minute or two, as everyone else was silent.

Stein, however, was watching from the shadows, and he was glaring. _If two people can be in that staff, I wonder, can we isolate just Erin, and give her her body back? It's not just Kitsune, but Rick who's a danger now. He seems too close to giving in to that insane wavelength._

_Although,_ he had to admit, his eyes trembling slightly, _it's not like I'm all that much better...!_


End file.
